Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sunday Top 10 - Players Who Need to Step it Up!

Now that we're in November and the season is more than a quarter finished for most teams, I think it's an appropriate time to consider some players who've greatly underachieved this season. These guys aren't your typical OHL depth player. They are quality OHL players, several of them NHL draft picks, and as such more is expected of them on the ice.

Let's take a look...

10. Brett Flemming - Mississauga St. Michael's MajorsAfter being such an important part of the Majors blueline last season, Flemming has struggled to find a role this season. Part of that could be due to the fact he's played both forward and defense, but if his play on defense had spoke for itself, he wouldn't have been switched. He has the potential to be a quality puck rushing and offensive defenseman in this league, but he's not doing it right now. The Majors need him to step up his game to take some offensive pressure off of Cameron Gaunce. He was more of a factor offensively in his 16 year old rookie season.

9. Marco Insam - Niagara IceDogsThe Italian Stallion, Insam has failed to repeat the success he had last season for Niagara when he became one of the teams most important goal scorers. This season he's struggled to make a consistent impact and has been much less of a physical force. I thought he had the potential to score 30 this year and the IceDogs could sure use it to help take the pressure off of their three main offensive players (Friesen, Agozzino, DeSousa). He needs to be less enamored with finding room for himself to get off his big slap shot, and begin to play the game simple. Be a big man who hits the crease and creates room for his smaller (albeit tougher) linemates.

8. Mathew Sisca - Guelph StormBrought over by Guelph in the offseason after finishing second in scoring for Niagara last season, Sisca was expected to help provide secondary offense behind some of the Storm's bigger guns (Kennedy, Beck, Holland, Latta). Instead, Sisca has been inconsistent offensively and has continued to be a less than effective two-way player (his ticket out of Niagara). On the plus side, he has been good for Guelph in winning face offs, but they brought him in to do more than that.

7. Josh Brittain - Plymouth WhalersAlready traded once this season after falling out of favor in Barrie, Brittain will try to impress the Whalers enough to earn significant playing time. He's getting it right now, playing with Tyler Seguin. Yet, he's got only 2 goals and no assists in 5 games. Such an enigma, Brittain will not be a significant factor in this league until he learns how to play every shift hard. Cutting back on the undisciplined penalties wouldn't hurt either. With some significant injuries to top offensive wingers, the Whalers really need Brittain to step up and provide Tyler Seguin with some help.

6. Marcus Foligno - Sudbury WolvesGetting captain John Kurtz back in the fold was big for the turnaround of this team offensively and in the standings, but secondary scoring is still a problem. Part of the problem has been the lackluster play of Marcus Foligno, who was expected to take his offensive game to the next level this season, but instead decided to become a pugilist. With his father re-taking his post behind the bench, perhaps he can get Marcus' development back on track. Sure enough he realizes how important Marcus' offensive production is to this team's success.

5. Greg McKegg - Erie OttersAfter a somewhat disappointing rookie season, more was expected in 2009 of this 2008 2nd overall selection in the priority draft. The Erie Otters are currently the worst team in the Western Conference by a large margin, and part of this has been an inability to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis. While McKegg hasn't been atrocious, he needs to be more consistent. The Otters are really missing Ryan O'Reilly right now and until players like Greg McKegg step up offensively, Otters fans won't have a reason to forget that.

4. Peter Di Salvo/Jason Missiaen/Scott Stajcer - Barrie Colts/Peterborough Petes/Owen Sound AttackYou know me, I've always got to cheat to get these lists down to 10 players. However, I do see reason to include all three of these guys on this list. All three are playing for good teams, but all three need to be way more consistent in order to make their teams serious threats in the post season. Di Salvo's lucky enough that the Colts offense has been as good as it has. He's given up 4 goals or more six times so far this season, three of which he's managed to win. Missiaen has been either lights out or a sieve, which has been the mantra of his OHL career thus far. Stajcer (a pick of mine for the 2nd all star team...not looking good so far), was quite bad during the Attack's opening season struggles. He has been better lately though, especially in this most recent weekend. All three of these guys have the talent to be top goaltenders in this league, but they need to step up and be more consistent.

3. Phil Varone - London KnightsYeah the London Knights are a top 10 team in the CHL right now, but I think most Knights fans would tell you the team is underachieving offensively thus far. The main underachiever has been Varone, one of the stars of the teams playoff run last season. Two goals thus far just isn't going to cut it because the Knights are a much better team when the offensive motor of a guy like Varone is running. Perhaps he'll always be a streaky player though as that's kind of been the knack against him in his OHL career thus far.

2. Zack Kassian - Peterborough PetesAfter starting the season somewhat well, Kassian injured his shoulder thanks to a hit by Greyhounds captain Jacob Muzzin. And since his return, he's been a non factor. The Petes need a healthy, determined, beast Kassian in order to get back to the way they were playing at the start of the season (when Kassian wasn't even playing spectacular). As a high NHL first round pick, I think the expectations on Kassian have to be high. And without his positive impact on the game, the Petes are only a mediocre team.

1. Tyler Cuma - Ottawa 67'sWhile I wasn't as high on the 67's this season as some other people and analysts were, I have to admit...If you would have told me that the 67's would have the least amount of wins in the league at the 1/4 mark, I would have thought you were crazy. One of the biggest reasons for the struggles of the 67's has definitely been injuries and illness upfront, but also the inability of the defense to keep pucks out of the net. One of the biggest suspects on this end has been Tyler Cuma. Whether it be rust from his knee injury of last season, or pressure from expectations of being an NHL first round pick, Cuma has not played well this season. In the times I've seen him play, he's been trying to do too much on the ice, rather than playing the smart two-way game he was drafted for. If the 67's are going to turn things around, they are going to need the old Tyler Cuma back (well and better goaltending).

Anybody on your team who needs to step it up? Do you disagree with any of these guys being on this list?

14 comments:

Anonymous
said...

As a Knights fan, I might give Justin Taylor an honourary mention on this list. Maybe he doesn't deserve it, but he's my favourite player and it's frustrating to see him not perform his best. He's been a solid point per game player for most of his OHL career, but he's sitting at 9pts in 16 games right now. It's not like he's the corner stone of our offensive production, but it hurts the team when your Captain is struggling and frustrated. Here's hoping he, and basically the entire offense, gets rolling soon. On the bright side, at least he's a +3.

Right on the money for Brittain and DiSalvo. Brittian has been lazy, taken numerous stupid, lazy penalties that have cost the Colts and previously the Frontenacs opportunities. Di Salvo needs to get his head on straight. After the trade of Hutchinson, you would think knowing he is the number one guy would aim him in the right direction but......

NO AFENCE BUT HAVE YOU WATCHED THE BARRIE D. YOU WRITE THESE COMMENTS BUT YOU ONLY WRITE ON A BAD GAME . DISALVO HAS PLAYED GREAT.PLUS YOU COMMENTED ON HIM BEING CHOSSEN ON THE CANADA RUSSIA SERIES .IF YOU REALLY WATCHED ALL THE GAMES YOU REALLY WOULD SEE HOW WELL HE HAS PLAYED AND I WOULD GATHER HOCKEY CANADA THINKS THE SAME. MY SUDGESTION IS GO WATCH BEFORE YOU COMMENT ON THESE KIDS. SAME GOES FOR STAJER.

re ohl russia series and goalies i am left scratching my head a bit. disalvo i understand because one game is in barrie so they need some barrie content to sell tickets. hutchinson baffles me since it seems like his back-up is outplaying him based on the stats but then again i don't see all the games. hackett seems like a decent choice. Others that maybe should have gotten consideration are beskorawany, carrozzi based on his stats. i don't think any of these guys have a shot at the world junior team anyway so maybe they should have picked some younger goalies who may have a shot at the world junior team next yr or yr after. Just my thoughts.

RE: Justin TaylorI definitely expected a little more out of Taylor this season, especially considering that with the type of game he excels at (crashing the net and out working the defense), he should be due for a real solid offensive season. Overagers of that ilk tend to breakout offensively because they're that much stronger than their counter parts. I suppose the Knights offense overall could have made this list. McRae and Kadri have been streaky, while players like Phil Varone, Justin Taylor and Jared Knight have underachieved.

RE: Di Salvo and the CAPS locked commentsInteresting that I've got one Barrie fan agreeing with me and another one calling me blind. Who's the right one? Quite frankly, I've seen a fair amount of Di Salvo and Stajcer this year (three times each). They are both capable of more and as such I included them on this list. As a goalie, you need to be consistent, especially for any team with OHL Championship aspirations. You mention Di Salvo's inclusion on the Subway Series roster. While it's true to assume that Hockey Canada does like him, have you also thought of his inclusion being for the hometown Barrie fans? Last year in Niagara, Andrew Agozzino was included on the Series roster for the hometown game and no offense to Agozzino (who is a solid player), at the time he didn't deserve to be in that game all things considered. I think the more telling sign is that Di Salvo is a 1990 born goaltender who was passed over in the NHL draft last year.

RE: The Goaltending at the Subway SeriesWhile Hutchinson's statline isn't as impressive as Houser's currently, it's not a reflection of Hutchinson playing poorly. Having seen Hutchinson, Beskorowany, and Carrozzi a lot over the course of their OHL careers, I'd definitely prefer Hutchinson. He's the combination of Besko and Carrozzi, he's as consistent as Carrozzi, but also as capable of stealing games as Beskorowany is.

I definitely agree about the younger goalies though. Would have loved to have seen JP Anderson or Bryce O Hagan in one of the games, rather than Hutchinson playing both.

GUESS WHAT DELLA ROVERA IS ON THE ROSTER YOU HAVE WATCHED 3 GAMES THAT DISALVO HAS PLAYED THIS YEAR AND YES HE HAS HAD 2 GAMES THAT WERE NOT GREAT AND BROCK I READ YOUR COMMENTS ON DISALVO GAME IN SARNIA AND TO BE FAIR BROCK! HE DIDN'T HAVE MUCH HELP IN THAT GAME HIS D IS A WORK IN PROGRESS REALLY BROCK YOU SEEM TO MISS ALOT OF GAMES THAT HE PLAYED GREAT IN AND YOU SEEM NOT TO COMMENT ON THOSE GAMES BROCK WHY IS THAT. MAYBE ITS BECAUSE YOU SEEM TO STAY AT HOME IN SARNIA OR ST. CATHERINES. IF YOU WERE A REALLY HOCKEY WRITER OR HOCKEY GUY YOU WOULD SEE MORE GAMES. TO COMMENT ON THESE BOYS ON ONLY 2 OE 3 GAMES. BE REAL. DID YOU SEE DISALVO IN LONDON OR IN BARRIE AGAINST BRAMTON THIS KID IS PLAYING WELL. GET OUT THERE MORE BROCK . YOU SAID IT YOURSELF YOU ONLY HAVE SEEN DISALVO AND STAJER IN A FEW GAMES.I NO IM REPEATING MYSELF BUT I REALLY THINK THAT YOU BROCK HAVE NO CLUE. OR SORRY DOES THAT HURT!! AND WHAT YEAR WERE YOU BORN DID YOU GET PASSED OVER FOR A REAL WRITER .

Calm down, Mr. CAPS. Not every word you type is urgently in need of capitals.

Re Hutchinson, he's been playing mostly away games. Houser I think has benefitted some from the Knight's impressive performance at home. Just a thought.

Re Taylor, I've been watching him too and I'm not sure what the problem is, why the results just aren't coming. I don't see him doing anything particularly wrong. I figured he'd be pushing really hard too, since he didn't get anything out of the Vancouver camp. Lingering issues with his shoulder, maybe? God, I hope not.

The Spitfires are performing well but I'm a bit underwhelmed with the play of Richard Panik so far. You can see he's clearly a player with the tools to score lots of goals but he hasn't quite been filling the net despite playing time on the power play and with Taylor Hall on the first line some games. After his slick goal in the preseason maybe I expected a bit more, but I understand imports take some time to adjust.

I think Unice should be mentioned, even though he's been injured for most of the first quarter. When you play that poorly it has to be considered a disapointment even if it was only a few games.

From what I've seen of Hutch in London that guy is the real deal and deserves to play the Russians. This stuff about Houser out playing him is nonsense, playing Windsor on the road is a bit different than playing some scrub team at the John Labatt Center, so the numbers don't mean much to me.

Hey Brock, switch Flemming with Gaunce. Not sure if you watched St. Mike's at Owen Sound or heard about this, however Gaunce was benched for the 3rd period. I know you're high on him, but he is seriously underachieving thus far.

Caps guy, lighten up. Most of us agree with Brock's insight. Up until mid October DiSalvo was brutal. You can discount the latest Guelph game, however go back and look at 2 games on Oct 4 & 8 against the Majors and Gennies - he let in 10 goals and upto the Shwa game had given up 28 goals in his first 8 games with a SV% of .885. Yes, he turned it around for a while there in mid-October, but the question remains which goalie will show up for the Russia series? You gotta wonder if the Colts traded away the wrong tender.

I DON'T NEED TO LIGHTEN UP I KEEP GIVEN YOU THE FACTS ITS SO EASY TO SAY ITS THE GOALIES FALT YOU SAY HE LET 6 IN THE ST. MIKES GAME GO ON THE OHL SITE RE WATCH THE GAME AND TELL US HOW MANY WERE THE GOALIES FAULT. HIS D IS A WORK IN PROGRESS LIKE I SAID BEFORE . THE DEFENCE HAVE HAD A VERY HARD TIME THIS YEAR. GAME ONE OF THE SAESON BARRIE BEATS UP ON OWN SOUND 9-1 AND DISALVO IS THE 3 STAR . WELL YOU SAY THE GOALIE 3 STAR ON A 9-1 GAME YOU WOULD THINK THE GOALIE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO THAT NIGHT, GUESS AGIAN. LOOK AT THE FACTS BEFORE YOU SAY WHICH GOALIE WILL SHOW UP. AND STAJER IS IN THE SAME BOAT .AND FOR HUTCHINSON WITH BOTH GAMES CAN YOU SAY HUNTER, YOU SAY THAT DISALVO IS THE HOME TOWN BOY. GIVE ME A BREAK ! DELLA ROVERE IS THERE TOO.

I'll be honest here. I can't take your argument with me seriously for a couple of reasons which lead me to believe you're severely illiterate.

1) The article you're referring about Di Salvo in Sarnia was not written by me. It was written by one of my contributors Ryan Yessie.

2) Your use of CAPITAL LETTERS is irritating to me, as is your terrible grammar and spelling. I actually have absolutely no idea what you tried to say to me (or the other commenter) in your last response.

3) You act as if I've got some vendetta towards Di Salvo. I don't. If you could read (I know...big assumption), you'd see that along the right hand side of my blog I've got a tagged link area to all (or most) articles including those players. If you click on Peter Di Salvo's name, you will come across a game report I actually DID write from late last year where I was impressed by Di Salvo's play.

As to your point about Stefan Della Rovere...well actually I have no idea where you're going with that one. He's there because he was actually on the World Junior team last year. As was Alex Pietrangelo in Niagara last year (in fact Petro and Agozzino hooked up for the game winning goal in the Niagara game). Just because Petro was in the Niagara game too, doesn't mean that Andrew Agozzino wasn't selected to help sell tickets to the home town IceDog fans. Just the same that SDR's inclusion in this years challenge roster doesn't mean that Peter Di Salvo wasn't selected to help sell tickets in Barrie.

My last comment is in relation to your problem with me seeing Di Salvo only three times this season. I'm not entirely sure what you expect, but unfortunately I don't have the ability to watch 2 different games at once. I like to spread the wealth in order to get a bigger picture of what's going on in the OHL.

Bottom line Mr. CAPS...you don't like what I'm writing about or think I'm an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about...then why are you still reading my blog?

NO I'M NOT DISALVO JUST A BARRIE FAN, BUT YOU NEVER SEEM TO GIVE HIM OR OTHERS CREDIT FOR GAMES THAT THEY PLAYED WELL IN. YOUR PARTNER CALLED HIM AN AVERAGE OHL GOALTENER WHEN INFACT YOU HAVE ONLY SEEN HIM A FEW TIMES. AND IN THE GAMES THAT HE WAS OUTSTANDING YOU MENTION NOTHING.AND IF YOU ALL THINK HE WAS CHOSSEN IN THE RUSSIA SERIES BECAUSE HE PLAYS FOR BARRIE WHY HIM WHY NOT SOMEONE LIKE HUTCHINGS. P.S THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME I READ YOUR BLOG OH BY THE WAY THE GOALIE ON THE SPIRIT' S PASQUALE HE IS NOT HAVING A GREAT START WHY NO MENTION THERE. AND GET OVER THE CAPS THING.

I have seen Di Salvo in the range of 15 times, and I can tell you he has his games where he looks like a giant killer, then plays the next one like he is new to the game. Letting in soft goals more often than he should puts the D behind the eight ball when they are not sure which Di Salvo is going to show up. Carrozzi has performed in Mississauga and deserved the game Russia game ahead of DiSalvo. Did the Colts trade the wrong guy, not sure on that. Hutchinson has not been a giant killer in London either. He has been good but..... Della Rovere gets there based on his gold medal. He obviously did what he had to on the ice to have been picked for the world jr. team. He got an opportunity due to the injury to Kadri and took advantage of the opportunity

About Me

Brock Otten is a former writer for Hockeysfuture and has contributed to PuckLife magazine, in addition to other hockey websites (UHN, LSR, etc). All articles of this blog also appear at www.thescout.ca